The timing of the 2015 MERS outbreak in Korea couldn't have been worse for Dior. The French fashion house had chosen that year to open its first flagship store the biggest in Asia at the time and launching its first Esprit Dior exhibition series in Seoul. At the helm of the project was Lee Jong-kyu, then Dior Couture Korea's general manager and now Etro Korea's chief, who recalls it was in parts .
Days after Vogue Korea faced outrage for carrying out a steamy magazine photo shoot at the former presidential office in Seoul, authorities have cancelled an upcoming fashion show by Gucci at a 14th-century South Korean palace to avoid further controversy. The luxury Italian brand had earlier received the green light to hold its constellation-themed Gucci Cosmogonie event on Nov 1.